The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania To Robert Allison of Uwehlan [?] Township, Chester County, Farmer, Greeting, We command you that the Body of Negro Lydia in your Custody as it is said detained by whatsoever name the said Negro Lydia may be charged in the same under safe and secure conduct together with the day and cause of her being taken and detained you have before the Honorable George Bryan [1], Esquire one of the Justices of our Supreme Court at his Chambers in Arch_ Street in the City of Philadelphia on Wednesday the eighteenth of February next at noon of the same day Then and there to do and Submit to whatsoever our same Justice shall consider in that behalf and have you then there this Writ, Witness the Honorable Thomas McKean [2] Esquire Doctor of Laws Chief Justice of the said State at Philadelphia the Twenty second day of January in the year of our Lord MDCCLXXXIX

[1] “George Bryan, a Judge of the Supreme Court” lived at 437 Vine Street in Philadelphia in 1785. Prior to becoming a Justice on the state Supreme Court, Bryan had been a member of the state legislature and a leader of its Supreme Executive Council. His leadership was crucial to the passage of the 1780 Gradual Abolition Act. While on the Court, Bryan often sided with the cause of liberty and the aggrieved slave. Macpherson’s Directory for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia (1785), 16.

[2] In 1785, Thomas McKean, Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court, lived at 522 Third Street in Phliadelphia. Macpherson’s Directory for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia (1785), 86.

[3] Edward Burd was the Prothonotary of the state Supreme Court. In 1785, he lived at 414 Third Street in Philadelphia. Macpherson’s Directory for the City and Suburbs of Philadelphia (1785), 17.